Whitey Grandad

I bought my ticket at the Ticket Office at 10:30 this morning. My seat had already been sold. . What happened to the Supporters' Charter and having priority for your 'own' seat?

All valid points, but in the interest of fairness it should be pointed out that a large part of the employer's NI goes bck to the taxpayer.

They sometimes talk a load of over-excited ********. All those endless slow-motion replays detract from the action and prevent you from getting completely involved in the match and its atmosphere.

If you can't stand the heat.... Please don't try that 'holidays are unpaid' line again, you'll only get laughed at. If you don't contractually have to be at your usual place of employment and you can do what you like on those days off then you are 'on holiday'. Talk to anybody who runs their own business or is self-employed and you'll find that they work Saturdays and Sundays too, and they certainly don't get paid when they are not working.

Brown was spending our money like water long before the recession. You would have to be stupid to disagree with that.

I agree with everything that has been said in the previous posts. That doesn't happen very often.

10 mins for half time, no video recordings, just memories. The game wasn't over until the referee said so. Even the 1966 World Cup final wasn't seen again until a colour film was released in the cinemas. If you saw a goal at a live game you'd never see it again. The only live game on the tele was the Cup Final once a year. You could never show that the ref or linesman had made mistake.

I'm fairly certain that there were technology trials at Staplewood a few years ago. Does anybody know anything about what the conclusions were?

Yes, a good article. So what do they suggest we do? Change the manager and only pick players from the Championship?

Certainly not. Embrace the world around you and learn to appreciate its beauty and infinite variety. A world without birds would be a very sad place. Besides, that UFO might come back and shoot you because it thinks you're a pesky nuisance.

Nope, nope of those apply. If anything the road has been improved with a separate footbridge for cyclists and pedestrians over the railway line.

Ok, I was referring to the speed limits and not the cameras. Of course, once a camera has been installed the number of serious accidents falls and then 'they' will argue that this is because of the camera whereas it is often just 'regression to the mean'.

Most of our local ones are set by Councillors who pester the 'experts'.

I have some sympathy for you. These mobile camera units are only positioned where they catch the biggest number of 'speeders'. Most sensible drivers go at a speed which reflects the prevailing road conditions and environment, we dont go counting the distance between street lights. I defy anyone to tell me that the 30mph limit at the top of the dual carriageway on Bitterne hill is there for safety reasons. There's sometimes a mobile unit near me on Baddesley Road which was a 40 limit for over 30 years after we moved in. Then they made in a 30 limit, took away all the repeater signs and set up a cash register on the grass verge. If that road was deemed safe at 40 for over 30 years, why is it not safe now?

Good point! Then we need a wall of something, spikes would do, plasticine would not be so good in my opinion. This would also have the beneficial effect of more goals being scored. Of course, if there were a row of spikes on the ground it is less likely that any player would tyry to clear the ball. This microchip thing was trialled a few years ago by the FA down at Staplewood but nothing ever came of it.

In Victorian times the terms Britain and England were used interchangeably. I think it's down to the rise in scottish (and welsh) nationalism.

That's because there are lots of Londons in North America, just as you can find Athens and Berlin and Paris. Driving along Cape Cod is weird with towns called Harwich, Ipswich, Chatham, Orleans, Falmouth together with american names like 'Mashpee'. Taunton, Weymouth, Plymouth, Bristol are all close by. There's also a Barnstable (sic) which the locals presume is a mis-spelling of Barnstaple but is actually the name for a region of south Essex (in England, Britain). So you can hear them refer to 'London, England' which distinguishes it from 'London, Ontario' and all the others.

We don't need technology for goal decisions. Just dig a trench behind the goal line one ball's width behind the back edge of the painted line. Then the ball would not bounce back into play. Squash courts have a strip of 'tin' at the bottom of the wall, long-jump pits have plasticine where the foot lands. Mind you, a row of steel spikes would do the same job. Whatever method is chosen, there will come a point where the ball is on the edge of a hairline decision, and somebody will have to make a choice.

Spot on. Lampard aims a free kick straight at their (4-man) wall and Barry clubs the rebound straight to the other team who run down our end and score, and you could never describe Rooney's ball control as 'silky'.

I hope not. Blind faith in modern technology is very disturbing and we saw the miscarriage in the England's Rugby match. Television has far too much influence on football already. An extra official on each goal line would be sufficient. All we need are footballers who can hit the net instead of the woodwork. If this had been a German 'goal' nobody would have mentioned it.

The more we hear about the training camp the more it sounds like a prison regime. Now we're even talking about 'conjugal rights' visits.

Martin Samuel in the Mail today: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/worldcup2010/article-1290396/MARTIN-SAMUEL-There-thing-tired-England--excuses.html Carlos Tevez 40 games Gareth Barry 43 Dirk Kuyt 53 Steven Gerrard 49 Nigel de jong 42 Javier Mascherano 45 Glen Johnson 34 And some of these had long flights for qualifying tournaments.

Wasn't there something in the charter about having first claim on your 'own' seat.

I'm self-employed. There is no such thing as sick-leave for me.

If this is the golden generation I'd hate to see the silver or bronze.